By Carol Karutu – the Vice President, Programs at the END Fund.
Umare Sissoco Embaló, President of Guinea-Bissau and Chair of the African Leaders Malaria Alliance (ALMA), recently praised the remarkable strides made in the fight against Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs). Fifty countries have now eliminated an NTD and in the past few years alone Niger became the first African country to eliminate river blindness, Togo eliminated four NTDs, and Guinea worm reached the verge of eradication. However, His Excellency cautioned that to maintain this progress, African leaders must take center stage through sustained political commitments, domestic health financing, and greater collaboration. In February, just two weeks after the 2024 World NTD Day, the African Union (AU) answered this call and hosted a dedicated NTD event at the annual AU Summit in Addis Ababa, which launched the Addis Ababa Call to Action and was held concurrently with the operationalisation of the African Medicines Agency.
Entitled ‘High-Level Side Event on Operationalizing the African Medicines Agency & Securing Africa’s NTDs-Free Future’, this event gathered Heads of State, Ministers, African Union leadership, and NTD partners with the overarching objective of securing domestic financing commitments to NTD elimination from AU member states. Policymakers with the power to affect real progress are increasingly standing up and taking accountability for the resources needed to eliminate NTDs and improve lives across the continent. This has been demonstrated by the Oromia Regional Health Bureau in Ethiopia, which is in advanced discussions with the END Fund to co-finance treatment of trachoma, schistosomiasis, and soil-transmitted helminths.
While this event was the first to be held at an AU Summit, this should be seen as a culmination of efforts by the AU and NTD partners in recent years, illustrated by achievements such as The Continental Framework on the Control and Elimination of NTDs in Africa by 2030, which recommends a number of pan-African strategies for NTD elimination. Additionally, several countries have established country-owned multi-sectoral End Malaria and NTD Councils and Funds; the 2022 Kigali Declaration on NTDs was signed by the AU and multiple African countries; at CPHIA in November 2023 the AU, Africa CDC and the END Fund hosted an event exploring how to sustain elimination milestones once an NTD has been declared eliminated; and at COP28 in December 2023, alongside the record $777 million pledged to combat NTDs by global partners, the Governments of Tanzania and Sierra Leone publicly committed to increased domestic NTD contributions, establishing a precedent for African leaders.
Progressive actions such as these serve to advance global health and development more widely. Agenda 2063, the AU’s masterplan for transforming Africa into the global powerhouse of the future, has a central goal of healthy and well-nourished citizens. NTDs are but one of many health priorities in Africa, yet 600 million Africans still require treatment for at least one NTD. Reducing this number would significantly contribute to achieving this goal and have knock-on benefits for prosperity, gender equality, and education. In the same vein, the prospect of achieving SDG 3 by 2030 increases as NTD prevalence decreases; and the same can be said of the goals set out in the WHO 2021-2030 NTD Roadmap.
The scale of this task is monumental, yet inspiration can be drawn from recent NTD elimination success stories and a burgeoning suite of innovative tools. Launched by WHO in 2016, the Expanded Special Project for Elimination of Neglected Tropical Diseases (ESPEN) has become a vital data sharing resource for the AU, Ministries of Health, and NTD programs across Africa. More recently, the introduction of the ALMA scorecards for NTDs has deepened the data pool available to NTD stakeholders and together these tools are helping to develop more targeted interventions and elimination strategies.
Across Africa, policymakers and leaders must capitalize on the momentum generated at this year’s AU Summit, seizing the moment and assuming responsibility for mobilizing the resources necessary to eliminate NTDs. With the Addis Ababa Call to Action now in place, African leaders have committed to prioritizing NTDs within the broader health and development agenda through sustainable financing, improved data-driven programming, and intensified cross-border collaboration. This marks an important step on the challenging and dynamic journey to NTD elimination in Africa, the dividends of which will extend far beyond healthcare, encompassing broader societal benefits and paving the way for a brighter future for all Africans.